Gold: The Feb Gold contract is trading Down at 1312.90. Gold is 59 ticks Lower than its close.

Initial Conclusion

This is not a correlated market. The dollar is Up+ and Crude is Down- which is normal but the 30 year Bond is trading Lower. The Financials should always correlate with the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow and vice-versa. The S&P is Higher and Crude is trading Lower which is correlated. Gold is trading Lower which is correlated with the US dollar trading Higher. I tend to believe that Gold has an inverse relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you aware that when we don't have a correlated market, it means something is wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your eyes wide open.

At this hour Asia is trading Mixed with half the exchanges trading Higher and the other half Lower. Currently all of Europe is trading Higher at this time.

Possible Challenges To Traders Today

Mortgage Delinquencies. This is not major.

FOMC Member Bowman Speaks at 11:15 AM EST. This is major.

Treasuries

We've elected to switch gears a bit and show correlation between the 30 year bond (ZB) and The YM futures contract. The YM contract is the DJIA and the purpose is to show reverse correlation between the two instruments. Remember it's liken to a seesaw, when up goes up the other should go down and vice versa.

On Friday the ZB made a major move at around 8 AM EST. The ZB hit a Low at around that time and the YM hit a High. If you look at the charts below ZB gave a signal at around 8 AM EST and the YM was moving Lower at the same time. Look at the charts below and you'll see a pattern for both assets. ZB hit a Low at around 8 AM and the YM was moving Lower at the same time. These charts represent the newest version of MultiCharts and I've changed the timeframe to a 30 minute chart to display better. This represented a Long opportunity on the 30 year bond, as a trader you could have netted about a dozen ticks per contract on this trade. Each tick is worth $31.25. Please note: the front month for the ZB contract is now March, 2019

Charts Courtesy of MultiCharts built on an AMP platform Click on an image to enlarge it.

ZB - March, 2019 - 2/8/19

YM - March, 2019- 2/8/19

Bias

On Friday we gave the markets a Downside bias as both the USD and the Bonds were trading Higher Friday morning and that doesn't bode well for an Upside day hence the Downside bias. The Dow dropped 63 points but the other indices managed to eke out a fractional gain. Today we aren't dealing with a correlated market and our bias is Neutral.

Could this change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.

Commentary

Once again the Dow trended to the downside and fell on Friday with a loss of 63 points. For whatever reason this all seems to stem from the State of the Union address last Tuesday. Now the analysts and pundits are suggesting and foreseeing a worldwide global slowdown of economies. But no one is stating as to why that is. In the US everyone seems to think that the slowdown won't affect the United States. The prevailing attitude seems to be "we have our tax cuts to keep us going and look at our great jobs numbers". What everyone seems to forget is that the same situation occured in 2007 when the US had stellar gains in the job market but in December of that year the gains fell to 17,000 net new jobs created when the estimate was in the hundreds of thousands. Bottom line, things can change and the US is not isolated from the rest of the world. But as is all things only time will tell....

On Thursday, April 5th we had the honor and privilege to be interviewed by David Lincoln on his You Tube channel. David is a floor trader for the options markets. If you listen to this interview, you will enjoy it. To view the interview go to:

ttps://youtu.be/U7gh9oanjIE

Just so you understand, Market Correlation is Market Direction. It attempts to determine the market direction for that day and it does so by using a unique set of tools. In fact TradersLog published an article on this subject that can be viewed at: http://www.traderslog.com/market-correlation-is-market-direction/

As readers are probably aware I don't trade equities. While we're on this discussion, let's define what is meant by a good earnings report. A company must exceed their prior quarter's earnings per share and must provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company's shares. This is one of the reasons I don't trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with futures and we don't have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals, malfeasance, etc. Anytime the market isn't correlated it's giving you a clue that something isn't right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is Neutral. Could this change? Of course. In a volatile market anything can happen. We'll have to monitor and see.

As I write this the crude markets are Lower and the S&P is Higher. This is normal. Crude and the markets are now reverse correlated such that when the markets are rising, crude drops and vice-versa. On Friday March crude dropped to a low of $52.20. It would appear at the present time that crude has support at $52.00 a barrel and resistance at $54.00. Remember that crude is the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump. Please note that the front month for crude is now March. Last month OPEC met once again to cut production but the price of crude is starting to climb. The question is if whether this is temporary or something more permanent.

If trading crude today consider doing so after 10 AM EST when the markets give us better direction.

Crude Oil Is Trading Lower

Crude oil is trading Lower and the S&P is Higher. This is normal. Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the course of any trading day: around 9 AM EST, 11 AM EST and 2 PM EST when the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest that something is not quite right. As always watch and monitor your order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why monitoring order flow in today's market is crucial. We as traders are faced with numerous challenges that we didn't have a few short years ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I'm not an advocate of scalping however in a market as volatile as this scalping is an alternative to trend trading. Remember that without knowledge of order flow we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money will have no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for trading purposes you need to make sure it's monitoring order flow. Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the various market correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.

Nick Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a daily newsletter that is dedicated to your trading success. We teach and discuss market correlation. Market Tea Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at www.markettealeaves.com. Interested in Market Correlation? Want to learn more? Signup and receive Market Tea Leaves each day prior to market open. As a subscriber, youll also receive our daily Market Bias video that is only available to subscribers.

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